Contemporary Character - Sally Bowles

Sally Bowels is a deceivingly young English woman living in Berlin. She appears to be a mature woman, possibly in her mid twenties, but is only nineteen. This is most noticeable with her immature tantrums and naivity throughout the chapter. Her profession involves being a Cabaret dancer where she performs through singing and dancing. Alongside this, Sally goes home with “lovers” and manages to earn herself money here and there by sponging off wealthy men.

Christopher Isherwood based her character upon Jean Ross, a woman he met and lodged with in Berlin. She had dark features and often boasted of her lovers, just as Isherwood has described Sally.

In this particular scene that I have chosen, we meet Sally for the first time. Fristly we get a brief idea of what she is like from Fritz’s description of her, “she’s an English girl, an actress…hot stuff.” Then we are introduced to Sally. The first impression I gain of her is a highly attractive, classy woman who is in all black. She appears mysterious but overly polite and impacting. When she continues to talk, I start to see her ‘class’ disappear, "divine decadents", as she openly talks about her previous night spent with another man. She is very open to discussing her sex life, and this makes her seem less of a woman, and more of a sleazy man with lack of self respect.

With this aspect of a personality aside, Sally is very charming and has a way of getting what she wants through the art of persuasion and flirting. Her mannerisms are very exaggerated and it seems very show-like, “like a performance”. With this she brings a presence to the room, as if she was on stage.

Her appearance is very dark and mysterious, “dark enough to be Fritz’s sister”, yet this contrasts to her “powdered dead white” skin. Her lips are described as “cherry lips” which creates the image of an intense red, glossy and full lip. Her eyes are described as “very large brown”, creating an almost child-like appearance. These elements create quite a clean and sophisticated look, but there are other certain aspects to her appearance that represent her dark and desperate lifestyle of a woman who uses her body for money. These include the suggestion of layered makeup, “retouched her lips and eyebrows” a sign that she hasn’t been home yet from the night before, spent with a man, unwashed and smelling of smoke, alcohol and sex.  Then there’s her filthy hands, “stained by cigarette-smoking and as dirty as a little girl’s”, another sign of poor hygiene covered up by cosmetics, in this case it is nail varnish rather than make-up. The fact her hands are compared to little girls is rather ironic as she is still a very young woman, at only 19, but has hands stained by a party lifestyle, making them appeared aged. But as desired, Sally wanted to appear like a more mature woman but dresses suggestively, “dressed in black silk”.

This is how I imagine Sally to look in this scene:

Viewed 20.11.14 [online image] Available at: http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/7d/a6/37/7da637348062d9595b7d51d8756a2ea1.jpg

In this scene, we see how Sally is capable of getting her own way when it comes to men. She asks for something and she will get it almost instantly, “Sure. Go right ahead”. The way she goes about herself is as a sweet and innocent young lady who carries herself like a woman who is ten years older. During this time, there was an odd sexual fascination for children, and this sickening idea is slightly portrayed in aspects of her naïve and child-like personality, and also in her described appearance.

As she has just come from a man's house, who she slept with last night, I imagine Sally to be in the same attire and make-up and hair from the night before. Her hair is imperfect and a bit messed up from her "terribly passionate" time last night. I imagine her make-up to be thick and heavily reapplied. Also her make-up will be from a night out, or possibly after performing, so there will be much more glamour than an everyday look.

Sally's main motives in life are money and sex. She links the two of her motives, as she seems to think that having sex with a rich man would equal money. She soon discovers that this is not the case, but can't seem to change her ways and will learn the hard way later in the book.

For my contemporary Sally Bowles, I would like to portray:

Her motives for sex and money
Her attire/hair and make-up from the night before (not fresh, 'caked' and messy)
Her party lifestyle (she may still be under the influence)
How she leaves a lasting impression
She's a performer
Green nails
Her hidden sadness


Mood Board:

From my moodboard, you can see a strong use of pastels with glossy/glittery textures. I would like to create a contemporary look for Sally Bowles using pastels, metallics and varieties of textures. 

Based on these ideas, I have created a few designs which are not final, but capture some of Sally's characteristics using contemporary aspects:

FIRST DESIGNS:

Make-up:
1.

For this look, I have used soft tones of orange, pinks and silvers. I feel that this look isn't very impacting and that more striking colours against a pale skin tone would work better for this look. 

2.

For this look, I have used lots of pink tones with additions of gold. This has then been teamed with a slightly more impacting lip and strong brow. The eyebrows are drawn on dark and the eyeshadow is smudged down under her eyes to create the 'after night' effect.

3.

With this look, I have used more purple tones and teamed it with hints of gold. Again, there is a strong brow. I really like the turquoise element of the look here to contrast with the pinks. The purple tones toy with the thought of her feminine physique.

4.

The turquoise in this look contrasts well with the skin and can also be a reference to Sally's sometimes tomboy personality. The silver is also more complimentary with these colours and comes out stronger than the gold. I have also created a 'wobbly' drawn on eyebrow to emphasise the fact she has come from spending the night with a lover, etc.

Hair:

1.

This look shows the classic side parting and bob. With this bob I have heavily backcombed the hair and kept it straight to make it more contemporary, rather than it being sleek and waved. The hair is voluminous and structured. I think this style could be effective with colour and accessories added.

2.

This style is fairly similar to the above, but I have created more structure in three rows. This is to imitate the movement of fingerwaves. Again, it is heavily backcombed and structured to a bob style. 

3.

With this hairstyle, I have created a centre parting, rather than a side parting. But I have kept the parting clean and sleek to keep the historical element. The hair is then backcombed and structured into two rounded shapes to imitate waves.

4.

This style has been slicked down in a classic side parting and secured. The rest of the hair is then heavily backcombed. I really like this style for sally as I feel the textures represent her contrasting sides of her personality; the very together happy Sally, and the sad, young and miserable Sally. The textured hair adds to the effect of how her hair is to be messed up from the night before. 

Looking at Marilyn Minter:

American artist, Marilyn Minter's work displays elements of high fashion and glamour with aspects of pornography. Her work is shot with high definition lenses and then she would paint onto various materials.

Here are some images which I have found particularly inspirational:

Viewed 24.11.14 [online image] Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kraftgenie/5894134518/sizes/o/in/photostream/

Viewed 24.11.14 [online image] Available at: http://www.artnet.com/galleries/

Viewed 24.11.14 [online image] Available at: http://scriptical.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/scriptical-wordpress-the-art-of-beauty-frida-aasen-by-marilyn-minter-for-v-magazine-79-autumn-2012-4.jpg?w=700&h=942

Viewed 24.11.14 [online image] Available at: http://thelibertineezine.com/

I really love these images in the sense that that are sexually suggestive and focus on the lips, often associated with a subtle sexual feature of a female. The images look moist/wet, which again is very suggestive in itself. The water looks like sweat or condensation, creating a distorted image behind the glass. The diamonds and beading in the mouth are portrayed in a lustful way, being held in the mouth. The images are hot, sweaty and sexual. But they also display a distorted sense of wealth and glamour.

Green Pink Caviar (2009) 

"The eight minute high-definition video, Green Pink Caviar (2009) is a lush and sensual voyeuristic hallucination.  Filmed with macro lenses, she captures the most minute movements of female mouths licking candy and cake decoration.  Driven by her facination with the body, Minter’s film sets the stage for chance to happen." - http://www.marilynminter.net/video/greenpinkcaviar/

This video is very provocative and suggestive with the movement of the tongue and lips. It is almost as if the person is passionately kissing the glass and the liquid substance. 

Linking this to Sally's character:

Glitter/glam Vs. Dirt/Sex

The water distortion on the glass is similar to her misunderstanding of the differences between sex and love. I believe that Sally thinks sex is love, and she is confused with the differences. 

The beading and crystals in the mouth portray a sexual image, and I believe that this could represent to luxuries she gains from men she sleeps with.

Some of the images appear sexual, but in a dirty way. This can symbolise her state of coming back from a lover after spending the night with them the next morning, still wearing her glitz and glamour from the night before, but topped up again the following morning, producing a sense of uncleanliness. 

What I will take away from this research:

The use of diamonds and jewels - demonstrates her lustful personality, and the showering of gifts she receives from her lovers.

The effect of water - amps up the sex factor and also is a representation of Sally's distorted views on love.

The glitter/diamond detail - to produce an impression of her 'showgirl career'.